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Good. On to the unskilled laborer. If an unskilled laborer - in light of mental illness and lack of access to mental health services - is inhibited fr...

Tidied up a bit: (You've already accepted the premises.) P1. It's rational to feel compassion for a person with mental illness. P2. Hitler was a perso...

Okay, that gives us this syllogism: It's rational to feel compassion for people with mental illness. Hitler had a mental illness. Therefore, it's rati...

Do you accept that Hitler had a mental illness?

So you accept that it's rational to feel compassion for folks with mental illness?

Do you agree that folks with mental illness are victims of mental illness?

Not a duty. Feelings of universal compassion are a reflection of a more studied or nuanced understanding of neurosis and psychosis.

Absolutely, I would. His was a life of intense suffering. Poor tyrant. Obviously his deeds and ideology are the acme of immorality and ought to be den...

I don't see a reason to link their immoral behavior to their status as unskilled laborer. Those are separate things. As a social worker and psychother...

I wonder if unskilled laborers would be considered innocent victims or morally guilty.

Sweet, thanks

Thanks. If you bump into a more corroborative Rand reference in the future, feel free to send it along. :smile:

Would you say Rand shares this view? Interested in a direct quote from Rand.

Got it. Selective compassion.

That's where we disagree. I would call it compulsory labor. Work or die. Your view - and perhaps Rand's view as well - eschews compassion for the bill...

Is labor voluntary when the laborer has to choose between starvation and working for starvation wages?

Of course. The exploitation of labor. Exorbitant profits and starvation wages. The usual.

I want to remind you that we're talking about wealth-accumulation motivated by immoral desires. Redistribution of wealth accumulated immorally is hard...

The creation of government agencies to redistribute wealth is "the moral response of the rest of society."

What is there to restrain it?

That's the question. To my view, desires that reflect an exorbitant greed ought to be considered immoral.

If you did you'd be in good (evil) company. Rand defines altruism and selfishness in a very specific way.

Instead of the phrase "thoughts do not exist" (which I think misrepresents your position) why not try something like: Thoughts exist but only in the f...

Found it: capitalism. Below is an argument I'm kind of fond of. 1. Laissez-faire market forces reflect some set of human desires. 2. Said set of human...

It happens. I might say (as gently as possible) that the emotional satisfaction of certainty at times leads us all astray. A good example of rationali...

That's true. But I'd encourage you to try the syllogism again. Maybe there's a longer logical form your argument would fit into. There's lots of logic...

Can't edit on my phone. :smile:

Yeah, I fucked mine up too, but you get the idea...

Okay. A syllogism has the form: 1. A is B 2. C is A 3. Therefore, C is B. All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal. So you...

Are you thinking of it as a syllogism?

P1. Humans are generated by natural processes with reason (logic, rationality, conceptual faculty) being their means of survival. P2. It is only throu...

There is something in Rand's work that attracts these conservative types. Smaller government and less welfare, more Freedom as in Free Trade.

I'm interested in the long game. And I want to review my Kindle highlights on Rand to make sure I haven't misrepresented her view. At work today, so p...

No prob. My interest here is mostly in getting a clear picture of Randianism.

To my eye it suggests a central hub of activity, a primary nexus or central station - but I don't see the element of control you'd like me to see.

I can't make this out. Can you rephrase?

Not clear in this. Are you equating sensory data and reason?

PFC is implicated in most human behaviors. Integration of multiple values informs our choices. Cortical networks work together to process various leve...

Makes sense.

Haha.... She's a Firestarter...

So while believing ourselves to be following our rational self-interest we may in fact be following our irrational self-interest? In other words, whil...

And how can a person know whether his present thoughts, emotions or behaviors are rational or irrational? Is it possible to believe a given thought, e...

The brain controls reasoning and also the irrational in the human system(s)? So the brain, in its control of irrational thoughts, emotions and behavio...

So waking to a room on fire and escaping in a panic - this isn't an example of incoming stimulus controlling the brain?

Do you concede that the brain is in some sense itself controlled by the variety of incoming stimuli?

Thanks. So the brain controls reasoning and also anything irrational or emotional in the human system(s)? It controls, in a word, everything in the hu...

Okay. You want to prioritize the brain (you say reason, but then you talk about the brain, so I'm more comfortable saying the brain) over the emotions...

I thought you used the work capitalism in one of your propositions but now I can't seem to find it. Can you get me to it if you did? Thanks.

I'm asking you to provide a quote, not a collection of sources. You've made a claim. Now support it with a quote from your sources. Providing pages an...

Again, a source to support this claim?